[rajangdavis]

I think we should take it at good faith that Griddy was trying to provide a good service at what might have been a reasonable price that didn't factor in the entire Texas grid going down and the unexpected costs that would get passed on to consumers...

But, if I received a link to this page from my utility company, I would instantly feel a strong aversion towards them for the following reasons:

1. It's using a flat design image of a hand pushing a button, which might be the most generic, tech corporate aesthetic. This is a bizarre way of encapsulating the message of "We cannot feasibly perform as a reasonable service to our consumers so we're being shut down".

2. There is a reference to the word "Family". I love my family, but my relationship with them is entirely different than what I might expect from a utility company.

3. The message ends with "You will always be a Griddster.

A heartfelt thank you, The Griddy Family"

This is the most confusing message of all.

If my electric company was shutting down after charging an exorbitant bill with this message, I would be furious. This is peak corporate speak.

I think this message is probably not what a customer would want to read and I hope people in Texas can find a service that not only works but doesn't provide such corporate-speak to a situation that really amounts to them not accounting for a major catastrophe.

I think it would be reasonable for them to own up to what happened and really speak to that instead of the message they put out. The people that used this service deserve better than this

[shiftpgdn]

I think a lot of your confusion stems from the media basically smearing Griddy for "charging customer outrageous rates" when the reality was that Griddy allowed customers to buy directly from the producers at the spot rate (which was based upon demand) which was then announced to all system users by the states energy management system. The price spike was due to demand overload and critical infrastructure going offline.

I LOVED Griddy. It was an amazing product that gave users the power to dictate the terms of their energy consumption based upon grid load. When energy usage was high and they needed to fire up natural gas or diesel plants to meet demand my price would change above the 10c/kwh threshold and my energy usage would fall off as my smart home would automatically shut off lights, adjust the a/c or heater, etc. Further, I was able to take advantage of excess wind energy at night by running my dishes, washing my clothes and charging my car on scheduled off peak times.